Spyware is now becoming the enemy of computer besides virus. This software is typically installed on your computer without any permission. This can track personal information, serve as an unauthorized entry point for a remote user, or transmit data to an external source. Yahoo! as a familiar internet corporation, offers a bewildering number of services and options on its site, and the company’s toolbar is no exception. With a generous portion of specific types of searches, more customization options than you can shake a stick at, a pop-up blocker that goes above and beyond, and even a spyware killer, Yahoo Toolbar gets the seal of approval. It is easy to install Yahoo Toolbar. It tooks less than a minute to download and run the install program (0.4MB for the toolbar only or 3MB for the toolbar and Yahoo’s Anti-Spy utility). Once the toolbar is installed, you will need to either sign in to your Yahoo! account or register for one or a minor inconvenience. Then, you are then taken to a web page where you can choose from literally dozens of buttons and services.
As the search engine competes, Yahoo! has upped the ante by adding powerful spyware protection to its popular Internet Explorer toolbar. Same as the other search engine toolbars, Yahoo! Toolbar blends pop-up blocking and e-mail functionality with its search capabilities to enhance your browsing experience. Its latest version no longer requires you to sign into your Yahoo account to change the look of the toolbar. The interface is also completely customizable and fits seamlessly into your IE browser. Moreover, you can add or remove buttons for various Yahoo services, such as news and weather, but you have to refresh the toolbar to see the changes. The pop-up blocker stops most ads and does not hinder normal surfing.
The new Yahoo! Anti-Spy spyware scanner is an excellent addition based on some tests. They showed it to be just as thorough as stand-alone scanners. It quickly scans your system and provides detailed information about any spyware or adware found on your system. You can also easily remove what you want. With this new protection, Yahoo! Toolbar has definitely become the toolbar to beat.
Yahoo! Anti-Spy is both spyware detection and removal tool integrated into popular Yahoo! Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers. The program is based on the same spyware database used in reputable eTrust PestPatrol anti-spyware. However, Yahoo! Anti-Spy is a fully legitimate application and cannot be called a clone. Its vendor Yahoo! Toolbar is a PestPatrol official partner. The program can examine the Windows registry, running processes, cookies, files and folders and the user is not allowed to perform configurable scans. Moreover, Yahoo! Anti-Spy checks only common parasite locations for known threats. This is why full system scan performed on the test computers did not take more than one minute. The program does not thoroughly examine content of each file and relies only on its spyware definitions database, which is updated on a regular basis.
In the conclusion, Yahoo! Anti-Spy is an integrated component of the web browser’s toolbar and therefore does not provide any additional functions and tools. The program’s interface is very simplistic and also easy-to-use. However, it may be quite inconvenient for advanced users who would definitely need more power configuring the spyware remover. Fortunately, Yahoo! Anti-Spy is a free tool and this can be downloaded by any user of Yahoo! Toolbar.
